THE USE OF CAVALRY IN WAR.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3719, 2 September 1886, Page 3

THE USE OF CAVALRY IN WAR.

{Somlay Gazette.) The opportune or the inoppirtune use of cavalry, tlio way to make use of this costly portion of the army, and the way not to make use of it, havo been for many years tlic object of keen dispute. An officer of Hie German army, a member of the great Hohenlohe family, has just published m the JRevur. Scienlifiqite a most interesting essay on the subject, not the least valuable part of which is the practical deductions which the writer draws from some of the more historical cavalry episodes. Speaking of the battle of Woerth, between the Prussians and Marshal HacMahon, M. do Hohenlohe writes: — "An officer of the (Gorman) infantry, who saw the celebrated charge of the French cuirassier*, told me that after an unsuccessful attack, his men were retreating down a declivity where mitrailleuses and chassepot bullets, etc , kept up an unceasing shower upon their devoted beads, and no one thought they would ever reach the wood at the bottom of the slope to find shelter therein . . Suddenly the firing ceased. The men turned m astonishment to Bee what had thus paved them from almost certain death. They caw the French cuirassiers, who m charging down the hillocks necessarily prevented their own infantry and artillery from continuing the fire. This of course gave them courage. The terror which had been caused by the »hot and shell which now ceased was dispelled, and each man calmly halting m his retreat, commenced a rapid fusilnde on the French charging squadrons, who fell gloriously, but without being of the slightest use (moindre profit). " It should be remembored that it is a German officer who, with an impartiality that does him credit, writes this. He might have said precisely the sumo of the smaller but almost rqnallv unprofitable Balaclava charges — though of course these were againßt guns chiefly, not infantry. At the charge of these cuirassiers at Woerth nearly twothirds of the men and horses of some of the regiments perished. There were some theorists, howftver (Marshall MacMahon among them, we believe), who maintained- that tl-e sacrifice of the cavalry enabled the French forces to accomplish some manoeuvres which would otherwise havo been impossible. The French Military Press almost universally condemned the — according to them — needless cavalry charge. General doßonnemain, who commanded the cavalry division, carried out the order, and lost one oV m bis sons m the charge. But he would never'willingly allude to the subject, though he seemed to share the prevailing opinions as to the uselessness of such charges. M. de Hohenlohe mentions as another instance scarcely les3 depreciatory of the va'ue of cavalry m action an episode at Sedan, m which the French infantry gained a clear advantage over the Prussian cavalry. " In this battle, " he says, " I had occasion to be present at a charge executed by tbo Prussian cavalry against the French infantry. The latter did not allow themselves to be intimidated ; on the contrary, thoy rushed towards tho Prussian squadrons as far as the quarries at Illy, and opened, with their chassepots, a rapid fire which stopped the cavalry's onslaught. Wo th'n, it is true, attacked this infantry with such a shower of shells that it was at last obliged to retire. But we bad not dared to open this fire until our horcemen had got far enough back from tho French infantry to make us fear no longer that we should shoot them ns well astheenemy. Their charge, m tho sense of being a chargo of cavalry, was repulsed." 11. do Hohonlohe has not perhaps added largely to the stock of evidenco or argument on the subject, and he himself would scarcely claim tohavemado nn end of controversy on the relative merits of cavalry and infantry. But there is the smoke of the battle-field around his experience and his counsels, and those who think little of him as an adviser will be interested m him as an observer of some famous episodes m which cavalry took a conspicuous and a sanguinary part.